Complaints

This profile includes complaints for East West Bank's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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East West Bank has 4 locations, listed below.

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  East West Bank

  555 Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94111

• 

  East West Bank

  5501 Geary Blvd San Francisco, CA 94121

• 

  East West Bank

  1066 Grant Ave San Francisco, CA 94133

• 

  East West Bank

  1241 Stockton St San Francisco, CA 94133-4310

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/06/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I was waiting in line at the bank and there was a really long line and only 3 clerks. I waited 45 minutes and I was only 6th in line. The problem is that while I was in line, I saw two people go straight to the front and cut everyone in line that was waiting. When it was my turn and I went up to the clerk, I asked them about seeing two people cut in line and the clerk told me it was for business and basically dismissed what I said. It really feels like this establishment is being unfair to their customer by letting people cut and not enforcing it. People were waiting a long time and a lot of them were old but those clerks let them cut in line. Those people that cut looks like any normal cusotmer, they do not look like special business clients. I feel like this needs to be addressed since the bank basically dismissed what I said. It also feels like they let this slide a lot because the customers that go to this bank is old and cannnot speak english, so I feel like i need to speak for them because when I saw how they dealt with people cutting in line, it really feels like that was not right and that branch does not enforce it at all

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/15/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We have a business checking account with ****************. We are a multinational company and the account owner is currently not in the state so we cant go into the bank in person. We have to make a wire transfer and was told by the banks online customer service to contact our account manager yasselyn ********. She wrote her 5 times within two weeks and never responded until we made a complaint to the customer service. She emailed us a form to fill for the transaction after 3 weeks. We sent the filled form the next day and was told we need to redo our signature and we did. By the next day we were told by ******** again we had to go in for in person verification. This whole month of trying to reach, emails and customer service calls are pointless. The bank could have tell us earlier. And is ******** trying to steal our info? Why would you have us fill out forms and verify our id if we cant do the wire online?

  Business Response

  Date: 11/22/2024

  East West Bank (EWB) recently received correspondence from the Better Business Bureaus (BBB)
  regarding your complaint, dated 11/15/24, regarding not being able to initiate an outgoing wire transfer.
  We work diligently to ensure our services are provided in adherence with all laws and regulations and
  with respect for all parties in transactions where East West Bank may have a role.
  According to correspondence we received from the BBB on 11/15/24, you allege that you had
  complained to the *********************** on 11/05/24 that you were unable to initiate an outgoing
  wire transfer from an EWB account.
  Please know that we are prohibited from sharing information on current and former customers due to
  state and federal privacy laws.
  We thank you for the opportunity to respond to your concerns

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/17/2024

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  The bank failed to provide the correct amount of repayment needed for a loan we took from them, and thus owes ** money as we had to overpay to finish the mortgage payoff process. They realized their mistake but took months to send the reimbursement checks. After we filled out the proper paperwork, the bank managed to send only 1 of 2 checks, and dragged out the affairs for so long (initial paperwork was filed Dec 2023, 2nd check has still not come) that we moved (internationally). When we asked them to send the check to our temporary new address, their reply was to demand another signed form when this whole ordeal could have been avoided if they either know how much repayment was at the start, or fulfill their promise of responding to loan issues in 5 business days and actually mail the checks.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/17/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Had just opened a new account on 12/30/23, all seemed to be going well. Did nothing wrong whatsoever. Made my normal deposit, kept a positive balance. Had just a handful of your average everyday transactions while waiting for my direct deposit at my employer to switch over. I went in to my account one day to check my balance and....it's closed. I chat with customer service and they say they won't give me a reason and sorry for the inconvenience. I ask again for a reason and they say no, they will not give me one. This is right before the winter freeze and I was going to use funds to get some food, extra supplies, etc. just in case. As it turns out, yes, I needed it. I went without for days. I asked how I can access my funds. Agent (*****) said to go to a branch. It was Saturday and a 3-day weekend and a hard freeze on the horizon. I said that's obviously not possible, and why can't I use the same debit card I've been using and why wasn't I notified of this? Why would nobody reach out to me and at least notify me so I could have planned accordingly? She said "Sorry, can't help." I'm planning to file a complaint with Consumer Protection because I was never notified of this, had to discover myself the hard way, had no access to my funds, money is still being held and collected interest on I guess while I have nothing, have to reroute my just-setup direct deposit meaning I'll be even longer without my pay and money, deal with the embarrassment to my employer of explaining my account was closed that I just opened and stood behind as my depositing institution, and nobody has reached out to me, contacted me, mailed any communication...nothing. Pretty deplorable practice and way to treat people, and still no idea where my money is or why they just chose to keep it. I imagine this will also damage my banking history. I want this removed from my banking history, credit report, and I want my funds refunded immediately either by allowing my card to work or sent funds directly.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/10/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 2022 Sept. 30th, my checking account was frozen by the East West Bank. The reason they gave me was that I received my 2021 tax refund from IRS and they think this fund was "very suspicious". They asked me to provide all the confidential materials to prove that "I am eligible to receive the tax refund", including the photo of my SSN, the tax refund forms, and my recent earning statements. I highly doubt if the East West Bank has such rights to collect confidential information from me. However, after I submitted all the materials, the East West Bank still refused to unfreeze my account. Meanwhile, East West Band continued to demand more materials that I do not have or never heard of, such as "letters from IRS that assigned ITIN to me". I am an international graduate student and am working as teaching assistant at the University. My income is simply the monthly stipend from my university, so I have SSN and used SSN for tax refund. I do not have "letters from IRS that assigned ITIN to me" and the East West Bank refused to unfreeze my account for such ridiculous reason. Moreover, I provide files from IRS including my tax return forms W-2, tax refund status. These documents clearly show my income and tax refund, these are all from IRS. However, they intentionally ignore these documents. Now, I am facing an extremely difficult financial situation because all my money is in this account. I would be very much appreciated for your help! Thanks a lot!